Business News at 05:30 pm on 31st January 2023

Credit growth is likely to be brisk for MSMEs in financial year 2023-24 provided inflation remains benign and cost of credit is low, said the Economic Survey 2022-23 presented in Parliament on Tuesday. The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises sector witnessed a credit growth of about 31 per cent in January-November 2022. The Survey said quote, “If inflation declines in financial year 24 and if real cost of credit does not rise then credit growth is likely to be brisk in financial year 24,”unquote. Talking about the banking sector in India, the Survey said it has also responded in equal measure to the demand for credit as the year on year growth in credit since the January-March quarter of 2022 has moved into double digits and is rising across most sectors.

Moving on to Budget, Highlighting the achievements of the Indian Railways, President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday said that the Indian Railways is on the right track and is fast moving towards becoming the world’s largest electric railway network. The President was speaking while making her first address to the joint sitting of the Parliament’s Budget session. She said that the country has changed the age-old thinking of progress and nature not going together. Instead, the government has been focusing on ‘green growth’. President Murmu also spoke about the tremendous growth in India’s metro connectivity. She said that in the past eight years, India has witnessed thrice the amount of growth in the connectivity of the Metro rail network. She further added that India, by 2047, has to be a nation that is self-reliant a.k.a ‘aatmanirbhar’, and is also capable of fulfilling its humanitarian duties. This is President Murmu’s first budget session speech since assuming office in July 2022. The President arrived at the Parliament on Tuesday morning to address the joint session and kick off the Budget session.

Speaking of economy, Inflation in India is expected to come down from 6.8 percent in the current fiscal year ending March 31 to 5 percent the next fiscal, and then drop further to 4 percent in 2024, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday. Daniel Leigh, Division Chief, Research Department of the IMF said, quote, “Inflation in India as in other countries is expected to come down from 6.8 percent in 2022 to 5 percent in 2023 and then 4 percent coming towards the target in 2024,” unquote. He added, quote, “That partly reflects the central bank’s actions,” unquote. According to the World Economic Outlook update released by the IMF on Tuesday, about 84 percent of countries are expected to have lower headline inflation in 2023 than in 2022. Global inflation is set to fall from 8.8 percent in 2022 (annual average) to 6.6 percent in 2023 and 4.3 percent in 2024 — above pre-pandemic levels of about 3.5 percent, it said. The projected disinflation partly reflects declining international fuel and non-fuel commodity prices due to weaker global demand.

Let us have talk on Indsustry, Gautam Adani’s net worth continued to take a beating as the shares of listed Adani Group companies traded deeply in the red. After falling to the seventh place on the Forbes Billionaire list, the business tycoon lost $8.21 billion dollars on Monday, bringing his position on the list down to number 11. Carlos Slim, a Mexican billionaire, replaced Gautam Adani in the top ten list. The business magnate’s fortune is $85.7 billion, a marginal $1.3 billion more than Adani’s net worth. US-based forensic research firm Hindenburg Research released a scathing report detailing the stock manipulation and accounting fraud undertaken by the Adani Group last Wednesday. Following the release of the report, the Group’s scrips trade with sharp cuts on the bourses. Four out of seven listed Adani Group companies fell on Tuesday, with Adani Total Gas, Adani Power and Adani Wilmar hitting their lower circuits. Adani Green Energy fell 2% in the morning trade. Millions of dollars were shaved off Gautam Adani’s net worth as a result of the ensuing selloff. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires List, which now has Adani in eleventh place, the billionaire’s total wealth decreased by $6 billion on Wednesday and by another $20.8 billion on Friday, dropping to $84.4 billion.

Laslty, Domestic equity indices opened in green on Tuesday. The BSE Sensex rose 130.51 points or 0.22% to 59,630.92 and NSE Nifty 50 climbed 25.25 pts or 0.14% to 17,674.20. The top gainers on the Sensex were UltraTech Cement, Power Grid, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) while Tech Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv and IndusInd Bank were the top losers.